Embassies are unnatural things. There you are in the middle of Your Country, even in the middle of Your Capital City, and there, that one building, is by law and very ancient custom Not Your Country. The building and the very dirt it sits on is The Other Guy's Country. In medical terms it's like having an organ transplant. This foreign eye and ear and mouth is inserted into your own body (public) and you are not allowed to reject it. "An embassy" used to be a more mobile thing, as in "The king sent an embassy to the Court of Samarkand," where the delegation would conduct its talks and then go home. The important point whether mobile or permanent was that the institution was sacred. It was not to be molested or killed or kidnapped--and in return it was not to act as the opening wedge of an invasion force by stealth.

Trust Dear Leader to fuck up as many ancient customs as he can manage. Lead story in the Post today:

Developed over about three years by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, the plans reflect a beefing up of the Pentagon's involvement in domains traditionally handled by the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department.

For example, SOCOM has dispatched small teams of Army Green Berets and other Special Operations troops to U.S. embassies in about 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, where they do operational planning and intelligence gathering to enhance the ability to conduct military operations where the United States is not at war.

And in a subtle but important shift contained in a classified order last year, the Pentagon gained the leeway to inform -- rather than gain the approval of -- the U.S. ambassador before conducting military operations in a foreign country, according to several administration officials. "We do not need ambassador-level approval," said one defense official familiar with the order.

Watch for this piece to be discussed on all the Sabbath Gasbag shows today. If you thought the Foreign Service was in an uproar before--not the ambassadors themselves, at least those who get their jobs based on how much money they gave to the campaign, but the professional, career, traditionally apolitical people who do all the actual work--the floodgates should be full open now.